In Conversation: Making Waves

Q: Were you surprised by the 2007 Cascadia Scorecard, which found that British Columbia is the secondhealthiest place in the world?

GH: No. Our epidemiologists and researchers have been telling us that for a while. The Cascadia Scorecard measured healthiness based on longevity and that’s one variable. Then they gave four or five reasons why British Columbia has the longevity. Certainly, it’s an important indicator.

Q: ActNow BC is actually part of the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts — not the Ministry of Health. How did that happen?

GH: Organizationally, we fall under that ministry. We moved health promotion out of the Ministry of Health, recognizing that this is about cultural change and marketing. The uniqueness of our model is that it is cross-ministerial, so we require all our ministries to develop a service plan and have an ActNow BC or health promotion component. For example, we asked our department of highways to talk about how it will include bicycle and walking paths when building highways. If the Ministry of Parks and Environment is developing new parks, we want to know how it will facilitate people, etc. My role isto coordinate [health promotion], hold up our vision, look at strategies for addressing that vision, have specific goals around that vision, and hold everybody accountable to that process, while trying to provide the resources to assist us.

Q: How are you promoting health in the province?

GH: Recognizing that it’s a holistic venture, we’re looking to make societal, attitudinal and behavioural changes. We have five goals: to increase the percentage of people who are physically active by 20%; to increase the number of people who are eating more than five servings of fruits and vegetables daily by 20%; to reduce obesity by 20%; to reduce tobacco use by a further 10%; and to increase the number of women counselled about the use of alcohol during pregnancy by 50%. We have also developed healthy policies. We are eliminating junk food in all schools and [more recently] in all buildings owned by government. We have introduced a fruit-and-vegetable snack program in 100 schools and we’ll be moving that up to 150 schools [soon]. We’re also trying to expand physical activity and health awareness in our public service, and provide tobacco-cessation programs.

Q: Are there any best practices you can share?

GH: The most important one is to take a holistic approach, and not have a [single] health promotion ministry. We need a cross-jurisdictional approach. We [also] have to engage civil society. This isn’t just a government initiative. It’s an initiative where you have to raise consciousness across society.

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